


Giving it our Best Shot

by dirtylittlegreasemonkey



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Future Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-15
Updated: 2018-09-16
Packaged: 2019-07-12 17:33:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16000025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dirtylittlegreasemonkey/pseuds/dirtylittlegreasemonkey
Summary: A future fic based on Aaron's speech 13/9/181: we'll take him to the cinema to watch a rubbish film;2: wipe the snot off his face when he gets dumped at the school disco;3: and teach him to drive





	1. we'll take him to the cinema to watch a rubbish film

_we'll take him to the cinema to watch a rubbish film_

It’s Saturday morning. He’s been begging since Tuesday. Played them the trailer on YouTube. Reeled off a list of his school friends that have already seen it. Made a piss-poor attempt to tidy his room after spreading all that money-grabbing movie-tie-in crap all over the carpet. Robert even found one of those cereal-box figurines poking him in the arse when he collapsed on the sofa after work.

But today, on the day he’s been hinting about maybe, if he’s really good, could-he, can-he, he’s oddly quiet. He’s in the kitchen with a notepad making weird little scribblings like boys do. Robert couldn’t make head nor tail of it when he had a peek.

“Seb, you seen my keys anywhere lying around?” Robert asks coming down the stairs, jacket on.

Seb’s back straightens, chair slightly pulling away from the table. “Car keys?”

Robert’s eyes flick up, hearing the lilt of excitement in his voice. “Yeah.”

Seb hunts them down like a hound and stands on tip-toes, presenting them in two open palms.

“Lifesaver,” Robert says, ruffling Seb’s hair, though with the amount of product he uses it just springs back into place. Aaron had teased Robert about it – like father like son – but truth be told it was Aaron who’d moved the wax to a lower shelf so Seb could reach it. He’d seen a sparkle in his eyes. Robert knew his game. Seb had learnt pretty quickly that if he didn’t want his dads messing up his hair then he had to use much more wax than was necessary.

“Are we going out?” Seb asks.

“No. I just need to pick something up I left at work.”

“It’s Saturday.”

“I know,” Robert says. “You gonna help me make pizza for lunch when I get back?”

Seb nods, but it’s a reluctant one. His chin wobbles, wobbles enough to make Robert pause. “What’s wrong?”

“I thought we were going to the cinema.”

Robert’s face falls. He’d been hoping. Praying. Begging. Anything for Seb to forget.

“Oh not that Digi-poke-robotron thing.”

“Robottozons, Dad.” He’s sounding desperate now. Tearful. Bordering on whiney.

“I thought your Dad was taking you after school on Monday?” He isn’t sure Aaron promised anything of the sort but it’s worth a try. It’s the sort of thing Aaron might say when he was trying to get Seb to go to bed at the time he was supposed to.

“No.” Scrunchy face. Sometimes it’s like looking in the mirror. “He said we were all going. Together.”

Robert calls for Aaron up the stairs and gets the brief, fleeting joy of seeing Aaron still wet, still in a towel. Seb leans on the stair railing all doe-eyed up the steps to his perplexed Dad.

“What’s the shouting for?”

“We’re going to the cinema.” Seb says it with a declarative confidence and charm that is all Robert.

“Did you agree to this?” Robert says, looking at Aaron and pointing at Seb.

 “I said if he was good we’d take him, yeah.”

“Robotto-things.”

“Robottozons,” Aaron says.

“Yeah that.”

Aaron grins. Bastard.

Seb beams. So that’s where he gets that trick.

“Your mum’ll take you,” Robert says, thinking on his feet.

Seb sighs, pulling that dramatic huffy thing he must’ve picked up from Liv when he was still toddling.

“It’s not a _girls’_ film,” Seb says. “It’s for _boys_.”

“That’s that, then,” Aaron says, shrugging. “Boys day out, then, little man?” They bump fists through the stairs. “Right, let me throw on some clothes and we’ll get going.”

“Yes!”

“Hold on, I’ve got work to do.”

“It can wait,” Aaron says. “We can drive past the yard on the way.”

“Yes!”

“Go and pick something from the snack drawer to take with us,” Aaron says to Seb. “Just make sure it’s small enough to smuggle in.”

“No, scratch that, we’ll get some popcorn when we’re there. I’m going to need all the help I can get to get through it,” Robert says.

“Yes!”

Seb twists on the spot with excitement, looking more like he needs a wee than a victory dance.

Turns out when they make it to the Vue, the first screening is sold out and the second only has the plush seats so Robert grumbles about re-mortgaging the house as he hands over his card. The price of the popcorn, the drinks, the Pick n Mix makes him come out in a cold sweat. But then he sees the two of them, chewy worms hanging out their mouths and pulling faces and his heart might just double in that moment.

By the time they get to their seats Aaron seems almost as excited as Seb.

“Why are you like this?” Robert says to Aaron, shrugging off his coat and keeping his eye on the popcorn so that Seb doesn’t accidentally kick it over and then kick off in frustration with himself. “You don’t want to see the film anymore than I do.”

“No, but knowing you’re _hating_ it is half the fun.”

The screening itself is hell on earth, especially when Seb wriggles all the way through the trailers because he can’t get comfy. The noise, the smell, the colours. It’s migraine inducing. Aaron smiles at him between fistfuls of popcorn, Robert shaking his head. Seb’s eyes are wide, unmoved, mouth ajar. He gasps and laughs and jumps in all the right places. Robert leans over the back of Seb’s seat to touch Aaron’s shoulder when Seb has leant so far forward his elbows are on his knees.

It’s all Seb talks about for the next three weeks. He acts out the trailer with his toys. He draws the robots. He relays the entire third act to Liv when she visits. He cajoles Diane into buying him a Robottozons lunchbox and Chas is persuaded to buy him the matching backpack. He draws a picture for the fridge, the three of them riding the back of one of the flying Robottozons (or is it, killing the Robottozons?). It gets pride of place.

Robert still thinks it’s the worst film he’s ever seen.  

 


	2. wipe the snot off his face when he gets dumped at the school disco

_wipe the snot off his face when he gets dumped at the school disco_

“One hot chocolate, extra marshmallows.” Aaron rests it down on the coffee table, sitting on the arm of the sofa where Robert has his arm around Seb.

“I’m not five,” he says, voice muffled by its wet perch on Robert’s chest.

“I’ll have it then,” Aaron says, leaning forward to pick up the mug, until Seb gives a little protesting whimper like Aaron knew he would.

No, he’s not five, not anymore. He’s twelve. Sensitive. A bit stroppy. Smart, funny, a loving big brother. And dumped by the girlfriend he’d been seeing for three weeks (a decade in Seb’s eyes) who’d only been over last week for her tea. Robert had even made pasta from scratch, slicing his finger when he’d meant to be slicing tomatoes. Aaron had taken the other kids out for a burger so they wouldn’t cramp Seb’s style, although he’d been looking at his phone all evening to get updates from Robert.

_She seems sweet. Quiet._

_Should I sit in the room with them?!_

Seb was smitten. They’d even helped him pick out a mushy teddy for her when it was her birthday. Aaron thought it was a bit too much, but he knew what Robert could be like in the romance stakes so he left them to it.  

Seb had been full of it just a few hours ago. They’d taken him to buy a brand new outfit (his choice, which was probably a good thing seeing as he’d written off their sense of style as “old” and “boring”) and Robert gave him some aftershave to try on instead of Seb’s usual liberal use of Lynx. He’d been getting ready, perfecting the peak of his hair while Aaron and Robert had dinner. The little ones were in the living room, zoned out watching the new Disney film for the third time this week. Robert had spent the last few days singing the lead song from it. Badly.

“This is going to sound mad,” Robert began. “But I actually feel nervous for him.”

“Big deal, innit?” Aaron said. “First big disco.”

“I didn’t even realise discos were still a thing.”

“Let’s hope he’s got better moves than you.”  

“Dancing or flirting?”

“Both.”

“Do you think they’ve…kissed?”

“Uh yeah. It’s been three weeks.”

“You know what this means, don’t you?” Robert said. “We’re one step closer to ‘the chat’.”

Aaron rolled his eyes. “You’re joking aren’t you? He’s twelve. He knows loads already.”

Robert groaned. “Oh yeah. The Isaac incident.” The two of them were thick as thieves and it wasn’t long ago Cain had caught them looking at porn on Isaac’s phone.

“We messed up there, didn’t we?”

“Maybe we should have a proper chat. Not just about sex, but you know. The important stuff. Falling in love. Relationships. Getting your heartbroken.”

“He’s going to learn it all the hard way, same as the rest of us.”

“I know,” Robert said. “But I just want to protect him.”

Aaron reached across the table and stroked the back of his hand.

“I don’t want him to get to fifteen and…” Robert exhaled. Aaron squeezed his hand.

“He won’t.”

Robert turned over his hand so that their fingers entwined. “If anyone can show him what love is…it’s you and me.”

“Don’t be soft.”

“I mean it.”

“I know.”

At that moment Seb came down the stairs, blond hair stuck to attention, brand new shirt pushed up to his elbows, obscenely priced trainers.

“Hey!” Robert said. “Looking good.”

Now, four hours later, Seb’s shirt is crumped, his face dragged red by tears and snot.

“What happened, mate?” Aaron asks. They’d got a teary phone call earlier with Seb demanding to be picked up and no, he wouldn’t wait for a lift from Moira, he needed to go home NOW. But since then he’s been silent, sulky.  

“She just said she doesn’t like me anymore,” he says. His chest heaves, the words coming out stuttered. Robert strokes the back of his head.

“She’s an idiot then,” Robert says. Aaron gives him a look, a small shake of his head. He can already see Robert’s ready to murder a twelve year old girl. “You’re amazing.”

“I’m not.”

“You were the coolest guy there. I saw the rest of the lads from your year,” Aaron says and makes a pfft sound to emphasise his point.

Seb grumbles. “You have to say that. _She_ doesn’t think so.”

“Well if she thinks she’s going to find better than you then she’s going to be very disappointed,” Robert says. Seb’s crying has paused, quietened for a while and Robert’s hand has moved to rub his back in a soft, consoling motion.

Seb uses his fist to wipe his eyes.

“You know, I made a girl cry at a disco once,” Aaron says. “Told her that her dress looked like a curtain.”

“Ouch,” Robert says. “Did you get a slap for that?”

Seb laughs.

“Dumped,” Aaron says.

“You had a _girl_ friend?” Seb says, sitting up from his position cuddling Robert and reaching for his hot chocolate. He has a furrowed brow just like Robert’s. “Dad, you’re gay.”

So free and easy, said in such a relaxed way, it startles Aaron into laughter.

“I am,” Aaron says. “But I didn’t really understand it all then.” Another talk for another day.

“But you don’t like girls now?”

“No, just blokes.”

Robert clears his throat and elbows Seb.

“Just your dad,” Aaron says, prompted for a correction.

“Better,” Robert says.

“But you had girlfriends?” Seb screws up his nose like it’s the weirdest thing in the word.

“A few,” Aaron says. “I even err…went out with your Auntie Vic.”

“No!” He finds it hilarious. “Auntie Vic?”

Robert’s face crumples between horror and embarrassment, but it’s a distraction from Seb’s grief, slipping away quicker than the years seem to be. Seb’s growing up. Fast.

“You and Auntie Vic?” Seb extends all the words so by the time he’s done, ‘you’ sounds like yyyeeeeewwwww. “You kissed?”

Robert looks like he has murder in mind so Aaron just grins and says. “Once or twice.”

“So funny,” Seb says and blows a big puff of air through his hot chocolate. He contemplates for a moment and Aaron freezes, anticipating a litany of questions, before one falls out. “Dad, can I have one of the dippy biscuits for my drink?”

Robert’s sigh of relief is audible.

 


	3. we’ll teach him to drive

_we’ll teach him to drive_

Ever since they bought him his first racing track, his first wheel-around truck, and his first multi-storey carpark, it’s been Aaron and Robert’s plan to do up a car with Seb when he reached driving age. A family project of sorts. He lost interest in cars when he was about thirteen, hankering after motorbikes instead, but that didn’t stop them hoping that one day all those grand plans would come into fruition.

So nearing Seb’s seventeenth birthday, Aaron had already been asking Cain to keep an eye out for a reasonable old banger at the garage – and to keep it strictly confidential for now. There was a secret glee in knowing they’d gone to all this effort, that this surprise would end up growing, transforming into his own pride and joy. It was a rite of passage.

Things came crashing down about a fortnight before, over tea, resulting in an argument that lasted right up until the eve of his birthday. Seb had been at Rebecca’s for the weekend and sat at the table feasting like he hadn’t been fed in three years.

“Steady on,” Robert told him, having already moaned at Luke for spraying food when he talked, gob full of lasagne. Annie was the only one in their household who managed to leave the table without bechamel sauce down her front.  

“Has mum talked to you about my present yet?” Seb asked.

“No, why?”

“She’s buying me a car,” he says, waiting for the awe-studded look on Luke’s face to bloom into envy. Seb seemed to revel in being idolised by his little brother. Aaron reckoned it had trouble written all over it. “Says I can pick. Within reason.”

Robert’s jaw steeled, his fork still in his hand. He had every urge to get up from the table and call Rebecca that second. He looked at Aaron’s face, irritatingly placid.

“We’ll see,” Robert said, almost unable to chew now. His fury had turned his food to rocks. Rebecca had a tendency to do that, to wade in with a seemingly endless supply of cash and buy things for Seb that they’d decided were too much money.

“Mum’s already said.”

“Yeah, well, we haven’t talked about it.”

Aaron tried to put his hand out, playing peacekeeper. “It’s fine, we’ll give her a call later.”

“What colour?” Annie said. She had a thing for unusual colour names lately. Kept saying she wanted everything in _magenta_ and _cyan_.

Robert spent the rest of the meal in silence, listening to Seb talk on and on about what cars he might get. Seb was doing it just to piss him off, Robert knew it. He kept looking over to check the expression on Robert’s face before carrying on. After tea, Robert excused himself to do some work and text Rebecca because he was too angry to talk. Over the years it was Aaron who’d taught him how to relax, how to divert his tempers. He’d picked up techniques from anger management.

Of course, that frosty tea exploded the next day when Seb sat at the table scrolling through images of his dream cars. Robert told him Rebecca had done it out of selfish spite (an exaggeration) and that he wasn’t responsible enough (a complete lie borne of anger). Seb had gone and stayed round Isaac’s and Aaron had come home from taking Annie to karate to find Robert still steaming in the living room.

“She did it on purpose. You know that, don’t you?” Robert said, clasping and unclasping his hands once he briefly outlined the argument, Seb’s absence.

“How can she have?” Aaron said, shaking off his coat in the hallway. Annie ran at Robert’s knees, hugging them together. “Show Dad your medal,” Aaron said.

Robert allowed himself the distraction of seeing Annie’s silver painted disk of plastic and scooped her up in the air in celebration before letting her scoot upstairs. The feeling returned in an instant. That hot press of failure, a house of cards flattening one by one. How would he get it wrong with her? With Luke? It’d happen soon enough.

“She didn’t know,” Aaron said. “She doesn’t do games. Not with Seb.”

Robert pushed his tongue hard against the back of his teeth, trying to stop that wall of tears pricking at him. He slumped down in the sofa, feeling it shift when Aaron sits beside him.

“I remember when we took him on that kiddie go-kart thing. Do you remember?”

“Blackpool, weren’t it?”

“Yeah,” Robert said. “Blackpool.” He found Aaron’s hand and held onto it. “And we talked about all the things we were going to do. Like take him on his first rollercoaster and go ice skating and teach him drive. But we were going to help him do up his own car first…”

“I know,” Aaron said. “But we did all of that other stuff.”

“But when we were talking about the car, you lit up. The three of us, you know? Three mechanics. We laughed about it.” Robert sighed. “And now she swans in with her bank account…”

“She just wants to spoil him.”

“I don’t want him spoilt. I don’t want him like that family.”

“Don’t talk like that,” Aaron said. “You know why she throws money at him.”

“So what, you’re fine with it?”

“It’s not up to me. Course I’d like to spend time with him doing up a banger, but it’s his birthday. And by the sounds of it he takes after you, doesn’t he? Eyeing up the flash motor. What almost-seventeen year old wouldn’t?”

In the end, Robert calls Rebecca and has it out with her. They manage to talk it through. Almost like adults. Turns out her husband had his reservations about splashing out on the expensive motor too and she says she “hadn’t really thought” that it might not be the best idea. In the end they agree to discuss it with Seb, buy him a cheap starter car and see how he gets on. They don’t buy the old heap of scrap from Cain and do it up, but Aaron does teach Seb how to change a tyre, how to jumpstart an engine.

Turns out they have their own lessons for him anyway. How not to get your keys nicked; your wing mirrors snatched; how to find breakdown cover; how to drive safely in fog; remember to check the petrol light.

When he gets his license, he takes them for a test drive, up to the Services (buys them a Burger King) and back. They have to swing by the village hall on the way home to pick up Luke. He’s practising for the panto in the much-coveted role of forest goblin.

“You know your dad nicked my car. That’s how we first met,” Robert says when they get onto the bypass. Aaron rolls his eyes at the swell of fondness in Robert’s voice.

“You’ve told me this story about four _hundred_ times,” Seb says.

Robert tuts a bit. “Concentrate on the road, eh?”

“Just ease up on the accelerator, mate,” Aaron says. “Your dad’s getting to be a nervous passenger in his old age.”

“It’s the way you two drive!” Robert says, removing his slightly clammy hand from the dashboard and connecting gazes with Aaron in the rear-view mirror.

They did good, didn’t they? Maybe they don’t always get it right, but they give it their best shot.

 

  


End file.
